Cinderella Spinderella by Mark Binder – Guest Post + Giveaway

MEDIA KIT cinderella_cover_hi_resCinderella Spinderella by Mark Binder

Cinderella Spinderella is an illustrated ebook (and audio book) for families

More than the dress or the shoes, Cinderella Spinderella tells the story about a young woman powerfully asserting her identity.

“It doesn’t matter what you look like… It’s who you are that counts.”
—The Fairy Godmother

Winner: Moonbeam Award for Best Multicultural eBook for Children!

The classic story of Cinderella has been modernized and urbanized in this beautifully illustrated edition, written with delightful humor and a surprising twist.

Cinderella Spinderella uses ebook technology to allow readers to choose how Cinderella looks. Is she Black, White, Asian, Hispanic, or from the Indian subcontinent? …You can pick!

Click here for an excerpt.

This is such a great story! I love how new technology allows us to see stories in a whole new light. My daughters and I both enjoyed reading this together.

guestpost

Getting rejected today is harder than ever. – Mark Binder

“Nobody asked you to become a writer.”

It was an odd thing for Howard Stein to say. He was the playwrighting professor and the head of the Hammerstein Center for the Performing Arts at Columbia University. I was his student, and as far as motivational speeches went, this wasn’t much of an inspiration to accomplishment. This was more of a marine boot camp sergeant’s attack on the ability of his charges to tie their own shoelaces properly.

And yet of all the lessons he taught, that’s the one that has remained.

Back in those days when you wrote something, you sent it out to an agent or an editor and then waited. If you were a “real writer” you didn’t wait for an answer to get started on your next project, you just plowed ahead. It would take months and months and months to collect the slips. And by then you’d have your next prospective masterpiece done, photocopied and in the mail.

Over the decades I had six agents who didn’t sell a single piece of my fiction to any major publishing company. The one thing that an agent did sell was my first book, “Crumbs Don’t Count – The Rationalization Diet.” A humorous anti-diet book, it had the privilege of being the first and only book ever priced at $6.50. (Have you ever in your entire life purchased something that cost $6.50?)

I hate rejection. I thrive on acceptance. Don’t we all? After a while, the fatalism of sending this out or submitting that for this award begins to pall.

In the old days I did sell the occasional bit of fiction here and there. Cricket Magazine was, for a time, buying much of my work. So I began writing stories for them. There was a Jewish newspaper in Houston that was publishing every Chelm story I wrote, so I pitched them a serialized novel. I don’t think they really believed me when I told them that I was going to do 100 installments over two years. The Brothers Schlemiel turned out to be a pretty cool project.

But by 2002, when The Brothers was completed, the world had started to change. My agent at the time took the novel to 20 publisher, and struck out again and again. Finally, he quit.

My collection, “The Bed Time Story Book” had gone out of print. Cricket was loosing subscribers and taking more and more time to pay. Jewish newspapers were contracting, and paying almost no one.

At the same time, I had begun my work as a story performer. So I focused there for a half-decade, and by then the technology of print-on-demand had begun to catch on. My publishing company, Light Publications, began to release editions of my work every year.

I was making great books and audio recordings. The lastest, “Cinderella Spinderella” is our first foray into both audio and illustration.

You would think that publishing your own work, which was scorned back in the 1980s, would have solved the problem of rejection.

It doesn’t. Back in the paper-age, you’d offer your precious creations to a few dozen people for their approval. If they accepted it, you’d won the lottery and your book would have its crack at being part of the literary cannon, or at least a backlist.

Today’s writers have the opportunity of being rejected over and over and over again on a daily basis by friends, families, and millions of strangers.

Now it’s all about the blurbs and the blogs and the Amazon’s recommendations. You and I have rejected any number of books in the past month, just by moving on. It might be a great book, but the blurb didn’t do it. Or the price was too high ($5.99! OMG!)

But as Howard Stein said, “Nobody asked you to become a writer.”

And yet I’d like to think that you have. I write for my readers. I want you to get a book that you’ll enjoy and then come back for another. And another.

My books have never been better. Cinderella Spinderella is an edgy and funny and inspiring reworking of the classic. Far from being rejected, it’s actually been winning awards, including, a Mom’s Choice, Benjamin Franklin, and it’s up for a Digital Book Award! The Brothers Schlemiel has been re-released in complete its unabridged edition in ebook and softcover. There’s a new audio-only recording called Fat Charlie and the Witch. And then there’s my backlist…

Right now, you have the opportunity to read (or hear) any or all of them. Take a chance. Spend a few dollars. You will enjoy them. I promise.

About the Author

MEDIA KIT mark_binder_profile_by_jason_beaver_thumb-300x275Mark Binder is an award-winning author and story performer and a parent. Over the past twenty years he has shared his Bed Time Story Book series with tens of thousands of readers and listeners around the world live, in print and in audio recordings. His most recent book is Cinderella Spinderella.

Detailed bio at: http://lightpublications.com/about_mark/

Website: http://cinderellaspinderella.com

Twitter: @barkminder

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CinderellaSpinderella

Kindle edition: http://www.amazon.com/Cinderella-Spinderella-ebook/dp/B00EIHEPN4/

iBooks Edition: http://georiot.co/2KDN

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Mark_Binder_Cinderella_Spinderella?id=CSteAAAAQBAJ

Kobo: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/books/cinderella-spinderella/wpbyU7rxY0-cxMlT89G9rA

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/cinderella-spinderella-mark-binder/1116518295

Audio Book

iTunes: http://georiot.co/3VlL

Audible.Com: http://www.audible.com/pd/Kids/Cinderella-Spinderella-Audiobook/B00F4DMLWI/

Amazon.Com: http://www.amazon.com/Cinderella-Spinderella/dp/B00DPZ5I36/

Google Play Audio: https://play.google.com/store/music/album/Mark_Binder_Cinderella_Spinderella_Single?id=Bwhmzetkkfqrkyxzpvyodhu7i5m

giveaway
Mark will be awarding a signed eBook gift card (ePub, Mobi or MP3 audio book) to a randomly drawn commenter at each stop and a Grand Prize of not only the ebook giftcard signed by Mark, but a limited edition cover poster autographed by both the author and the illustrator will be awarded to one randomly drawn commenter during the tour. Make sure you leave a comment on this post and then click the tour banner below to visit other stops on the tour to comment. 🙂 Good luck!!

VBT Cinderella Spinderella Banner copy

Loading

0 comments / Add your comment below

  1. Cinderella is one of my favorite fairy tales and this retelling sounds very interesting. Thanks for the great giveaway!
    bhometchko(at)hotmail(dot)com

  2. I love seeing this book reworked for modern times. The fact the reader can choose what Cinderella looks like makes me really happy. I think too many girls get stuck in a rut as to what they should look like and how they should act. We are all different! Kudos to you!

    I also wanted to say thanks for signing up for the Biannual Blogathon Bash in January. It’s going to be lots of fun.

  3. I do enjoy Cinderella twists. There are so many ways the story can go with the imagination. I missed the 10th and am very disappointed, as I really would liked to have reviewed the book. So if you did not get enough people to review the book or could use one more, Pleeeeeeeease squeeze little ole me in there. Mobi is my preference. Thank you with a cherry on top and a big smile too… 😀 !!!

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.